Euractiv is losing the Brussels media war

?? Euractiv is losing the Brussels media war. Talent is walking out, Contexte doubled in size, and Euronews is capturing events. Their big idea? A cheaper Politico Pro. Copying the competition isn’t a winning strategy—it’s settling for second place. Is it too late for Euractiv to fight back?

TL;DR: ?? Current Strategy: Build a lower-cost copy of Politico Pro. ?? 3 More Ambitious Strategies to Win: 1?? Own events: Dominate the networking space with one flagship event. 2?? Smarter tech tools: Solve Politico’s “information overload” problem. 3?? Go all-in: Invest heavily to challenge Politico head-on with Mediahuis’ help.

Building a cheaper Politico Pro is, at best, a plan to hang on second place, at worst, a surrender.

The problem:

1?? No differentiation: Why pick the copy over the original?

2?? Copying a losing product: Politico Pro is already losing ground.

To win, Euractiv needs to stop playing defense and return to its asymmetric strategy. Focus on its strengths: A Strong European brand. It’s clear that whatever Euractiv is doing it’s not working.

3 Bold Strategies for Euractiv to Lead

1?? The Event Strategy

This strategy goes after the total lack of a keystone policy event in Brussels. If Euractiv could corner “The event to go to” it could shore up the sponsored event market.

• Politico hosts many events, but there is no strategy.
• Euractiv can win by creating one flagship event that defines policy in Brussels—like Kara Swisher’s Code Conference.
• A unique event portal for all events in Brussels would also be useful.

2?? The Technology Strategy

Euractiv’s current Pro offering raises a key question: What’s the added value?

• Politico Pro’s main weakness is that one yearly subscription isn’t enough—consultancies have to get Politico, Context, OPP, and sometimes even DODs.
• “One platform to rule them all” for monitoring and actionable insights is doable. The value isn’t speed—it’s usability.

This approach would focus on high quality journalism and a smaller staff (which would increase Euractiv’s value from likely north of 20 million to 30+).

3?? The Direct Fight (Go Big or Go Home)

If Euractiv wants to compete head-to-head with Politico, it can’t do it halfway. This would require:

• Significant investment in editorial, sales, and technical teams.
• Fixing glaring weaknesses like its non-existent SEO strategy, and total lack of any technical IT staff, and low moral.

This approach is risky. Usually one doesn't fight convention war with incumbents. However it is still better than Euractiv’s current non strategy, which lacks vision and a winning scenario.

The Bottom Line: Euractiv must act boldly to survive. It can:

• Dominate the event space.
• Build smarter, more user-friendly tools.
• Or go big and challenge Politico directly.

Contexte was once a peer—they’ve doubled in size. If nothing changes, my bet is they’ll beat Politico.

Which of these strategies could save Euractiv? Or is it already too late?